‘Good Boys’ Bests Box Office Expectations

Universal

Five motion pictures opened large this weekend, however just one could possibly be referred to as a powerful success: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Good Boys. The R-Rated comedy debuted with a $21 million haul on the field workplace, which isn’t solely adequate for first place, but it surely additionally provides Good Boys the highest-grossing opening weekend for an unique comedy in all of 2019. Reviews helped propel the movie (80 p.c on Rotten Tomatoes), along with a strong B+ Cinemascore.

What’s fascinating in regards to the success of the Good Boys opening is that it’s so overwhelmingly seen as a “success.” Last 12 months, the R-Rated Blockers opened with an almost similar $20 million weekend, however on the time, that was seen as underwhelming. Why is Good Boys‘ opening seen as a hit whereas Blockers was seen as a slight disappointment? It’s not as a result of Blockers had a better finances (each have round a $20 million budgets). Is it as a result of Blockers was higher reviewed? No, not likely: It had an 83 p.c on the Tomatometer in comparison with Boys’ 80 p.c.

The distinction is a box-office setting now wherein a whole lot of comedies have been devoured up by the streaming markets as a result of in 2019 comedies aren’t anticipated to do as properly in theaters due to all of the misfires in the previous few years (together with Stuber, Rough Night, and Booksmart). The final time a comedy earned $100 million was 2017’s Girls Trip. When Blockers got here out final 12 months, there was nonetheless the expectation that comedies may do very properly in theaters, however there have been so many failures within the final couple of years — together with even Seth Rogen’s Long Shot — that when one musters up $20 million on its opening weekend now, that’s seen as an enormous success.